


Glory and gore go hand in hand

by Miyukitty



Series: SASOikawa 2016 [6]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aggression, Alternate Universe - Gladiators, Ambiguous/Open Ending, Ancient Rome, Blood and Injury, Implied Sexual Content, Implied/Referenced Character Death, Light Sadism, Love/Hate, M/M, Power Dynamics, Rough Kissing, SASO 2016, Sorry Not Sorry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-29
Updated: 2016-06-29
Packaged: 2018-07-18 19:03:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,565
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7326643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Miyukitty/pseuds/Miyukitty
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Written for the prompt: <i>"I want to pulverize my dear underclassman in an official match."</i></p>
            </blockquote>





	Glory and gore go hand in hand

**Author's Note:**

> Written for SASO2016 BR2 prompt: [official art](http://i.imgur.com/9YOcrGU.png)
> 
> Title and insp from one of my favorite Oikawa/Seijou songs [here](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K3ZZUiVWlP0). ;) Who likes researching historical weaponry because here is Ancient Roman Gladiators AU?? time for ye olde fighte clube, just pretend this is a past life where they have roman names instead of japanese lol
> 
> I decided to try splitting up the two scenes so it skips back and forth? as a result there's more making out now hahaaa /sweats, guess my last few uploads were too fluffy and loving

 

 

It had been loud enough beneath the stands, but the roar of the crowd in the Colosseum was deafening on the surface. The gladiators paced, each with their gladius drawn, shield arm raised warily to guard against the other.

 

The hot sand shifted beneath their sandals. Sweat trickled down Tooru's shirtless back. He stalked in a tight circle, wicked eyes sharp with focus through the shade of his visor. The summer heat could make or break them.

  
  
The crowd cheered for him. They loved him for his success story: once a prisoner of war, now a famous gladiator sought after by the legion, rumored to have turned down even the Emperor's offer of freedom for his sheer love of the games. They loved a winner, but most of all, they loved how clever and cruel he could be.

  
  
Tobio was the underdog: an unlucky mercenary convicted of treason and thrown to the mercy of the games, but finally having gained enough momentum to provide a real challenge to a veteran like Tooru. His strength was also his weakness -– his single-minded focus on victory that blinded him to everything else.

 

(His personality hadn't changed much over the years. Tooru knew him before the games, before their homeland fell to the _Sacrum Romanum Imperium_ , a lifetime ago.)

 

There would be no gimmicks in today's match -– no lions from the bestiary, no allies, no scripted surprises to shock the crowd. Just every eye in Rome riveted on the two men in the ring.

 

 

* * *

 

 

"I'm going to defeat you," Tobio called after his receding back.

 

It might have been threatening if not for the _way_ Tobio stared (lingering in the shadow of the wall, waiting, _wanting,_ greedy.)

 

Tooru turned and sneered at him, gaze flickering dark and dangerous. Blue eyes bored holes through him without flinching, too intense to ignore. They both felt it coming -- Tobio relentlessly closing the gap, chasing him no matter how hard Tooru fought to gain an inch of ground. He let his helmet drop to the floor with a crash.

 

Tobio's back hit the wall with an audible thump, but Tooru did not stop pushing. Fingers dug deep into his hip, pinning, bruising, as his smiling mouth chased Tobio's for a kiss with too many teeth. Tobio shuddered as his lip split from the force of it, coppery tang spreading on both of their tongues.

  
  
"First blood," Tooru hissed in triumph, breaking off the rough kiss.

 

His mouth slid down the elegant line of Tobio's arched neck with vicious purpose. It wouldn't be the last blood he spilled today, he swore, as he bit dark welts along the pale skin of Tobio's unguarded throat. He felt the pulse quicken against his tongue, and sucked hungrily for more.

 

 

* * *

 

 

The sun blazed overhead. Beads of perspiration made his damp hair stick to his forehead. He blinked back the sting of salt, refusing to break eye contact with Tobio.

  
  
_Wait for an opening. He's impatient. Outlast him._

  
  
Across from him, Tobio made a frustrated growl, and shrugged his shoulders against the cumbersome weight of the shield and sword. Tooru lunged without hesitation, knocking his blade against Tobio's hoplon with enough force to send numbing vibrations up through his elbow.

  
  
Tooru's wolfish grin bared more teeth. Then his jaws parted on a gasp, startled by the searing touch of metal clipping his side. Reflex pulled Tooru gracefully out of danger, but not before dark red welled from the shallow gash and spattered the sand between them.

  
  
"First blood," Tobio murmured.

  
  
"Brat," Tooru seethed.

  
  
Tooru backed warily away, calculating several steps ahead. He'd fallen for a simple ruse (...no, it was more likely Tobio managed to react that quickly on sheer instinct). Now his strength would flag as he bled out under the sun. He could no longer bank on endurance to gain the upper hand -- adapt, regroup, _dominate_.

 

(They were just getting started, but he hated conceding even that small victory. He used to be able to crush Tobio without him landing a single touch. He was a real threat now.)

  
  
The wound throbbed as his heart pounded, sweat mingling with the blood dripping down his hip. He paced restlessly, faltered a step. Tooru feigned a gasp of pain, but his venomous glare was all too real.

 

Tobio was wary of his wounded act, but circled closer, closer still, eager to land the finishing blow, to win. Tooru's gladius darted out, seeking to slip between his ribs, but Tobio parried it with his shield. The bone handle tore from Tooru's hand and flew uselessly across the sand.

  
  
Tobio even had the nerve to smirk at Oikawa's empty palm, like he had accomplished something to be proud of.

 

 _Arrogant little brat_ , Tooru thought again, as he raised his hoplon.

 

 

* * *

 

 

Hidden in the shadows beneath the Colosseum, Tooru pinned him to the wall by his throat. He bit down harder, and swept a knee up between Tobio's shaking thighs to drag out a needy whimper. Tobio's hands grasped uselessly as he squirmed against the wall, desperate to hold on to _something_ , but not daring to touch _him_.

 

Tooru rocked his weight forward, fingernails biting crescents into the arch of his hipbones. Tobio shivered underneath him and finally _moaned_ , just as the blaring trumpets and stomping feet of the crowd in the amphitheatre above them reached a fever pitch to drown him out. They called for _him_.

 

And in a flash Tooru was backing away too soon, taunting smile vanishing beneath the plumed helmet he slid on. 

 

He wanted _more_ , but this was just a taste. For him, the real game was about to begin. Tobio had the raw talent of a centurion, a natural-born instinct for combat that could not be taught. He was catching up in leaps and bounds. And Tooru's blood thrummed with excitement when he thought about smashing him to pieces.

 

(There used to be more of them, he remembered bitterly; friends, comrades-in-arms, _partners_ , but that life ended in chains with the Emperor's boot crushing his windpipe, and now Tobio was the only one left. Of course it would be Tobio. Not--)

 

Tooru's teeth gleamed sharp through the shadow of his visor grill. Tobio leaned against the wall for support, flushed and aching and desperate. Submissive was a better look for him. His dark hair was disheveled, hazy eyes unfocused as he made a small noise of protest.

 

_("I'm going to defeat you," he prophesied, and Tooru could already see the day when he'd be forced to his knees at Tobio's blade. Maybe it would end, then, but he'd go down fighting.)  
_

  
  
"It won't be today," Tooru promised as he walked away.

 

 

* * *

 

  
  
The round shields crashed together with a resounding _crack_.

  
  
Tooru used both arms and shouldered all his weight into it, gritting his teeth in a snarl. Tobio was forced to drop his sword just to hold onto his shield. The crowd screamed in a frenzy as the gladiators grappled, neither willing to give an inch of ground as they pushed against each other.

  
  
Tobio was gasping something, but Tooru was too high on combat to hear him. (Or maybe he just didn't want to listen.) With a peal of wild laughter, Tooru aimed a sharp kick at Tobio's thigh, forcing him to his knees.

 

As Tobio pitched forward and lost his grip on the hoplon, Tooru swung his shield up to crash against Tobio's chin. His battered helmet was sent flying.

 

The burnished metal flashed in the sunlight as it tumbled aside, and _oh._ Those startled wide eyes were too perfect.

 

_Keep watching me, Tobio._

  
  
Before the blood even began to drip from the gash in his chin, Tooru clubbed him upside the head with the shield, dropping him limp into the sand.

  
  
He planted a sandal on Tobio's chest, cocked one hand on his hip, and raised his shield in victory to the swell of the crowd. The match was over.

  
  
His eyes flicked down through his visor grill, studying the defeated opponent panting beneath him.

 

Tobio was still conscious, but barely. He stared dazedly back up at him through a swollen eye, bruises dark against his cheekbone. Tooru's gaze lingered on the marks he'd left, the bites swollen against his fluttering throat and the flayed skin dripping red from his jawbone. He was mouthing a name, but Tooru couldn't hear (wouldn't listen).

 

Tobio was still watching. Always wanting _more._

 

Tooru imagined what _more_ would look like, if he shifted all his weight onto that foot, if he stood square on Tobio's ribcage and watched him gasp for air as it slowly collapsed. He still had the taste of red on his lips, and wondered if he could kiss the breath out of his mouth while he suffocated.

  
  
"It would be a shame to kill you now," he remarked, "right when you were finally getting interesting."

  
  
The smile on his lips suggested he felt otherwise. The last tie he had left to his old life lay at his mercy. It would be so easy to bring the shield crashing down and save himself the trouble of a next time.

 

It was not his decision to make, so Tooru turned away to seek Emperor Wakatoshi in the crowd, and awaited the signal of thumbs up or thumbs down to seal both of their intertwined fates.

 

He could still feel Tobio's eyes riveted on him, waiting.

 

**Author's Note:**

> kin/kuni were the ones who ruined kags's career and got him thrown in prison, haaa. but i'm mostly thinking about ushiwaka killing iwa-chan and most of seijou, but taking oikawa captive and later offering him a position as an officer, cuz that's... :))));;;; 
> 
>  
> 
>   
>  ~~take it out on kageyama, oiks, he likes it~~  
> 


End file.
